Free The Bamboo Blonde by Dorothy B. Hughes Page A

that there was no hope he would agree to departure.
    If she had to endure this new danger she must know more about it; she must have information for a shield. She insisted, "I want to know all of it, Con, everything. What are you planning to do? You mustn't treat me like an idiot child."
    He didn't look at her. "I don't think you're either idiot or child, but I won't have you in this thing."
    That darkness had shadowed his face again and now the horror came into her being. Stupidly she hadn't realized it before. If a strange girl had been threatened by being seen with Con, how much more did she, his wife, stand in danger? But he was wrong. Why couldn't he see it? She couldn't protect herself without knowledge. "You can't keep me out of what you're mixed up in. I'm your wife. It's better to know than go around this way, hearing patches of it, guessing. Isn't it?"
    His reply was quiet but she heard it as if it were shouted above the fuming engine. He said definitely, "No, it isn't."
    * * *
    Griselda opened one eye the smallest crack possible. Something had waked her and she didn't want to wake; she was sleepy. She opened the eye wide, the other eye wider. She was right. Con was out of bed. She called tentatively, "Con," louder, "Con." The silence of the cottage closed in on her. For a moment she lay there in unreasoning fear before she caught up the golden fleece of her robe. He wasn't in the living room; he wasn't in the kitchen. His dinner jacket wasn't in the wardrobe behind the curtain of pink fish. His bag wasn't in the corner by the bureau.
    She knew it last night. She knew it when he told Dare he wasn't going. But she hadn't wanted to know. She didn't want him to go to Catalina.
    She couldn't let Con walk alone to meet possible danger. Her place was beside him. The clock said noon. She would take the afternoon plane and find him.
    She packed like an automaton, swiftly but with slight realization of her movements. Evening clothes. The black froth of lace. She could face Dare in that without qualm. Her canary flannel suit and crimson sweater to warm her. She drank coffee while she packed. Two cups. Then a third. The sound of steps on the creaking porch froze the steaming cup in midair. She moved warily into the living room where she could see out. It was Captain Thusby's apple face, his knuckles on the door.
    She opened it, spoke more cheerfully than she felt, "Good morning."
    He looked at the crimson hat flaring on her head. He looked at the cup in her hand. "Morning, ma'am. Mr. Satterlee here?"
    "No." Wisdom crowded in on her and it didn't give her reassurance. Thusby had told Con not to leave Long Beach. She must speak carefully. "He isn't in now."
    He couldn't know Con had left, that she was planning to follow. A woman would dress to go into town shopping or for lunch.
    "Figgered maybe neither one of you was here. Tried to call earlier but there wasn't any answer. Thought I'd just run up and find out. Vinnie might as well be sitting out in the car reading his Superman as in the office."
    And if neither had been here, what would he have done? Sent out a short-wave call for them as if they were criminals? She stiffened but she smiled at him. "The phone evidently waked me but too late."
    Her half-packed grip in the bedroom suddenly loomed so large in her mind that she wondered he could not see it printed on her face. She didn't know if it were visible from the chair in which he was and she didn't dare turn to see. She knew she'd left the door ajar; she always did. She could hear time ticking away on the bed table.
    She sprang up. "Won't you have some coffee with me?" The percolator was on the bureau. She could let the door follow her carelessly when she came out.
    He said, "No, thanks. Never eat between meals."
    She couldn't suggest another cup for-herself, not until this was downed. And she couldn't swallow now. She sat down again.
    He rubbed his fuzz. "Funny about all you folks knowing Mannie Martin."
    She said